Well, Alexandra Levit surveyed 500 gen-Y and gen-X professionals to find people with their dream jobs and she sat down for one-on-one interviews with nearly a hundred individuals to ask them that very question: “How’d you score THAT gig?” Her newest book comes out in bookstores today – How’d You Score That Gig?: A Guide to the Coolest Jobs-and How to Get Them – focused on young people in the workplace and the jobs they love.

Alexandra Levit is a leading business author and career consultant, and is one of the most prominent speakers of our generation on issues that face young professionals in the workplace. I recently had the opportunity to ask her a few questions about what she learned from writing the new book – from talking with all of these young professionals, like you and me, that love their jobs, and learning how they got to where they are now:

Alex, with your experience as a career columnist and consultant, beyond the traditional 9-to-5 job, what are some of the most coveted careers for young professionals these days?

My 500 survey responders thought the five coolest jobs were, in order of number of votes 1) Travel Journalist, 2) Event Planner, 3) Fashion Designer, 4) Documentary Photographer, and 5) Bed & Breakfast Innkeeper. I’m obviously partial to the book author and marketing exec careers myself, but I also found the futurist, forensic scientist, and screenwriter gigs personally intriguing.

So with information from your national survey of twenty- and thirty-somethings, tell us briefly about the seven main personality types that you’ve found among those surveyed.

The book features 60 cool jobs, divided into seven categories based on the broad personality types that are generally best-suited to those jobs. I selected the cool jobs via an online survey in which I asked nearly 500 twenty and thirty-somethings to tell me about their dream careers. Based on the responses, I generated a list of the top 60 careers and constructed a fairly comprehensive profile of each using the information I gathered from written sources and in-depth interviews with more than 100 individuals currently holding the jobs.

Then, I researched various personality type measures to develop my seven “passion profiles” – adventurer, creator, data-head, entrepreneur, investigator, networker, and nurturer – and placed the 60 cool jobs into the appropriate categories. In the first chapter, I designed an assessment (with help from my husband, who’s a psychologist) to help readers decide which passion profiles might be most appealing to them.

Of the many Gen-Y and Gen-X workers you spoke with face-to-face, who are just a few of the people that stick out most prominently in your mind, and what do they do?

Ethan won Survivor and parlayed his winnings into start-up funds for a new nonprofit organization called Grassroot Soccer. Peter worked his way up to become one of the leading news correspondents with NBC, regularly appearing on the Today Show and the national evening news. Carin left a very successful corporate career to open a hip bridal boutique in Washington D.C. Emily could name her price as a computational linguist whose job was to teach Japanese to a computer.

You’ve noted how Millenials have a hard time choosing a major that preps them for the real world and picking a career path after college. What are a few tips you recommend for college students who are deciding on their majors right now, or searching for their first real job after school?

Take time to do a self-assessment of your values, how you like to work, and what you’d be compelled to do even if you never got paid. Research careers and industries that map to your skills and interests. Hit the internet, set up informational interviews, take relevant coursework, and arrange to go onsite at a company in your chosen field.

What can students and recent grads expect to learn from your new book? What’s in it for readers to pick up a copy, and how will it benefit them in finding a career they’re happy with?

There are so many reference books out there that merely list cool jobs. I hope that How’d You Score That Gig? will provide a true insider’s glimpse into each and every one of the careers I profile, and provide access to people just like you and me who are in a position to give realistic advice about getting a job in each field. I hope that by learning about their personality profiles and the corresponding interesting jobs, a whole new world of possibilities will be opened up to readers, and they will have the courage to take the first steps on the journey to career fulfillment.

Order your copy today on Amazon: How’d You Score That Gig?: A Guide to the Coolest Jobs-and How to Get Them.

Alexandra Levit writes regularly for the Huffington Post, has published three career-related books, and runs a great radio podcast show on BlogTalkRadio for women in business. You can learn more about her on her personal homepage.

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If you enjoyed this interview with Alex, you might also be interested to read more from my past interview with her for IWillTeachYouToBeRich.com.

Congratulations go out to Alexandra on the new book, but more importantly on the new addition to her family–a newborn baby boy! I’d like to thank her personally for making the time to talk with ThrillingHeroics.com during this busy time.

Read the original article on Thrilling Heroics here: Looking for the Right Job After College? Alex Levit Provides Some Answers

Thrilling Heroics in 2007

2007 was a fantastic year for the blog. The site became an early participant in the Washington Post Blogroll program. And many things are still in development for the road ahead, but TH has recently been accepted as one of the first handful of Gen-Y career blogs to join the upcoming Brazen Careerist blog network, which should be a great opportunity. Over the course of the year, I also had the chance to interview several interesting individuals to get their perspective on leadership and success, so that Gen-Y readers can learn from their experience!

Thrilling Heroics has seen a lot of change this year as my personal interests and pursuits have evolved. The discussion is geared more toward personal and career development now than it was at the birth of this blog in 2006, but the central mission is the same: TH is a career-oriented resource aimed at college students and young professionals, with a strong focus on leadership, personal development, productivity, personal finance, entrepreneurship, and “lifestyle design,” with the purpose of inspiring and empowering readers to pursue their wildest dreams! In 2008, you can plan to see some further changes around here in content and design, and you will probably see a few guest writers. Click here to learn more about plans for ’08.

I also have to thank the readers, of course! Thank you for returning week after week. Thank you for your kind words of encouragement, for your patience with me as my direction and obligations change, and for sharing your thoughts on the discussions that take place here. Your comments and your supportive emails keep me going, and they keep the dialogue here interesting! In the next year, I hope to build more community here for you young readers, so please help us to grow the community by sharing the URL with your family, friends, and colleagues. Also, if you are a regular visitor, consider subscribing to the RSS feed to make life easier on yourself. Get posts delivered to your email inbox only when there is fresh new content, so that you don’t waste time visiting the site when there’s nothing new!

Best Posts of 2007

There were 102 posts this year, with over 6,800 unique visitors to the site. We made it onto Tom Peters’ homepage, Yahoo! Finance, and Consumerist.com, among others! This could not have been possible without you, the reader. Thank you! Here are the blog posts that caused the most buzz around the blogosphere this year and inspired the best conversions. Please take a moment to look back at the best of 2007:

Top 10 Most Popular Posts in 2007

1. Learn To Build A Brand That Shouts Distinction, Commitment, and Passion
2. Interview with David Anderson, Founder and CEO of Green Options
3. How To Use Your Peers For Fun And Profit!
4. Karen Seeh, Corporate Sustainability Strategist, Talks About Social Enterprise and How to Break In
5. Global Marketing, Six Sigma, and The Donald: An Interview with 23-Year-Old Personal Branding Expert Daniel Schawbel
6. Six Simple Money Tips to Get You Back on the Financial Track
7. Warren Buffett on Doing What You Love
8. Interview with David Anderson of Palo Alto Investors
9. 17 Ways to Think Your Way to Wealth!
10. Bright Young Minds: An Interview with Duff McDuffee of Falling Fruit TV

2007 Women & Business Interview Series with IWillTeachYouToBeRich.com

• Interview with Michelle Goodman, Author of The Anti 9-to-5 Guide
• Interview with Julie Jansen, Career Coach and Motivational Speaker
• Interview with Alexandra Levit, Author of They Don’t Teach Corporate In College
• Interview with Anya Kamenetz, Author of Generation Debt
• Interview with Pam Slim of Escape From Cubicle Nation

A Few More Notable Posts

• It’s Time for Some Thrilling Heroics: Commit to Pursuing Your Wildest Dreams with Me in 2008!
• The #1 Skill You Need to Succeed at Anything: Learn to Build Relationships
• 10 Great Ways to Distinguish Yourself from One of Silicon Valley’s Top Entrepreneurs
• The Need for Corporate Partnerships
• Keep Your Brand Current
• I Have A Dream…

Happy Holidays!

Read the original article on Thrilling Heroics here: ThrillingHeroics.com: The Best Posts of 2007

Read the original article on Thrilling Heroics here: An Exciting New Podcast for Young Professional Women

Already in this series we’ve heard from Pam Slim, who specializes in helping people transition out of corporate life and into self-employment, but you actually encourage young people to stay and excel within the corporate world. Why?

I’m fond of saying that not everyone is cut out for the life of working for oneself. Not only is being an entrepreneur costly, nerve-wracking, and incredibly hard work, but because of the way our economy is structured, it’s simply impossible for everyone to be one. It reminds me of a psychology study my husband told me about recently, which showed that 75 percent of people believed they were above-average looking.

I bet the same thing is true of would-be entrepreneurs. A lot of people believe they have what it takes to run a successful business, but in reality, few probably do. When considering employment, young people should look at an array of options, including those that involve working in the business world.

At the end of the day, most people will end up employed in a more conventional work environment, so it may be wiser to develop the skills and the attitude that allow you to succeed and achieve your professional goals within the context of that setting. Maybe someday you will have the opportunity to “go entrepreneur,” but your happiness and success shouldn’t be contingent on it.

So tell us about your book They Don’t Teach Corporate in College. What makes you an expert on the challenges facing young employees in the workplace?

Well, you see, I graduated from college as a straight-A student hell-bent on skipping up New York City’s corporate ladder. But after six months on the job, I was so stressed out that I was ready to join the large numbers leaving the business world for graduate or law school. Eventually, though, by sticking around and paying attention to the few people around me who weren’t dropping from stress-induced coronaries, I developed many of the skills crucial to staying sane and building a career.

I wrote They Don’t Teach Corporate in College because I thought that if I shared my experiences with other twenty-somethings, maybe I would save them some of the pain I went through. The premise of the book is that the business world is not a natural fit for graduates who leave school expecting results from a logical combination of education and effort. Suddenly, the tenets of success they were taught since kindergarten don’t apply, because getting ahead in the business world has little to do with intelligence or exceeding a set of defined expectations.

If twenty-somethings want to survive in the corporate world, they have to treat their first jobs like first grade and learn the practical lessons that will help them climb the ladder painlessly. They Don’t Teach Corporate in College focuses on tangible tactics that twenty-somethings can put to work immediately to be successful and satisfied working in the business world.

You say that twenty-somethings experience lower morale and higher turnover in the workplace. What can young professionals do to avoid such challenges? And what can organizations do to improve their employees’ experience and productivity at work?

There’s no doubt that the business world can be frustrating at times, so I recommend that twenty-somethings combat poor morale by understanding their hot buttons (i.e. what pisses them off or stresses them out) and plan in advance how to react without getting angry or upset when those buttons are pushed.

They should also try to banish irrational expectations regarding what their organization or boss SHOULD do (i.e. my boss should give me a raise, the company should have a policy against this). Life does not always play out in a logical or fair way and twenty-somethings do themselves a grave disservice when they hold on to a fantasy of what work or people should be like. Finally, young professionals can motivate themselves by focusing on the big picture and acknowledging little but significant career successes along the way.

I tell managers of twenty-somethings that they should aim to understand each individual’s unique capabilities and go out of their way to develop mutually-beneficial relationships. The manager should position himself or herself as someone who is available to help twenty-something employees grow and improve, taking them to lunch to learn more about their career aspirations and the type of work that get them excited.

Twenty-somethings don’t want to be micromanaged, but they do like to receive timely and consistent feedback, and to have assignments customized in a way that helps them meet their individual performance goals. Managers shouldn’t be fooled by twenty-somethings’ assertiveness and independence – there’s a lot these young professionals don’t know and they’re looking to the more experienced managers to help them learn it!

Continue reading at IWillTeachYouToBeRich.com: Heroines of Personal Finance and Entreprenuership #3: Alexandra Levit. Also pick up her book They Don’t Teach Corporate in College and check out her blog Water Cooler Wisdom.

Read the original article on Thrilling Heroics here: An Interview with Alexandra Levit, Author of They Don’t Teach Corporate In College

The panel will include:

• Michelle Goodman: Author of The Anti 9 to 5 Guide: Practical Career Advice for Women Who Think Outside the Cube
• Pamela Slim: Owner of Ganas Consulting and Author of the Escape from Cubicle Nation blog & podcast
• Alexandra Levit: Founder of Inspiration@Work career consultancy and Author of They Don’t Teach Corporate in College: A Twenty-Something’s Guide to the Business World
• Anya Kamenetz: Author of Generation Debt: How Our Future Was Sold Out for Student Loans, Bad Jobs, NoBenefits, and Tax Cuts for Rich Geezers–And How to Fight Back
• Julie Jansen: Speaker, Coach and Author of I Don’t Know What I Want, But I Know It’s Not This and You Want Me To Work With Who?
• Barbara Stanny: Speaker, Coach, and Author of Overcoming Underearning and Secrets of Six-Figure Women

Anyone else you guys would like to see interviewed? Let me know your suggestions.

I’m REALLY excited to get to work with Ramit and to learn from so many accomplished professional women. I’ll be busy for the next few weeks with these interviews, but it should be well worth it. Stay tuned for more…

Read the original article on Thrilling Heroics here: Interview Series with A Few Prestigious Female Authors